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WRITING LETTERS WITH MOM
Introduction
Mom
's simple but effective letter-writing
macros are a subset of the
docprocessing.html#DOCPROCESSING
document processing macros
,
designed to ease the creation of correspondence.
Because the letter macros are a subset of the document
processing macros, you can use
definitions.html#TERMS_CONTROLMACRO
control macros
to design correspondence to your own specifications.  However,
mom
makes no pretence of providing complete design
flexibility in the matter of letters, which are, after all, simple
communicative documents whose only real style requirements are that
they be neat and professional-looking.
Tutorial on writing letters
Mom
letters begin, like all
mom
processed documents, with a
docprocessing.html#REFERENCE_MACROS
reference macro
(in this case,
docprocessing.html#AUTHOR
AUTHOR
),
a
docprocessing.html#DOCTYPE
DOCTYPE
(
LETTER
, obviously), the essential
docprocessing.html#PRINTSTYLE
PRINTSTYLE
macro, and
docprocessing.html#START
START
.
.AUTHOR    "Yannick P. Guique"
.DOCTYPE    LETTER
.PRINTSTYLE TYPESET
.START
PRINTSTYLE
, above, could also be
TYPEWRITE
.
Mom
has no objection
to creating letters that look like they were typed on an Underwood
by a shapely secretary with great gams back in the 1940s.
After the
START
macro, you enter data pertinent to
your letter: the date, the addressee (in business correspondence,
typically both name and address), the addressor (that's you; in
business correspondence, typically both name and address), and a
greeting (in full, e.g. "Dear Mr. Smith,").
The macros for entering the data are simple (they're not even
definitions.html#TERMS_TOGGLE
toggles
)
and entered in an intuitive order.
.DATE
.TO
.FROM
.GREETING
Mom
ignores any you omit and spaces the letter's
opening according to what you do include.
Once you've filled in what you need to get a letter started, simply
type the letter, introducing each and every paragraph with the
docelement.html#PP
PP
macro.
At the end of the letter, should you wish an indented closing
("Yours truly," "Sincerely," "Hugs and
kisses"), invoke the macro
CLOSING
on a
line by itself and follow it with the text of the closing.
N.B.
Don't put your name here;
mom
supplies it automatically from
AUTHOR
with
enough space to leave room for your signature.
Assuming our tutorial letter is for business correspondence,
here's what the complete letter looks like.
.AUTHOR    "Yannick P. Guique"
.DOCTYPE    LETTER
.PRINTSTYLE TYPESET
.START
.DATE
August 25, 2004
.TO
GUILLAUME BARRI?RES
Minidoux Corporation
5000 Pannes Drive
Redmond, Virginia
.FROM
Y.P. GUIQUE
022 Umask Road
St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Qu?bec
.GREETING
Dear Mr. Barri?res,
.PP
It has come to my attention that you have been lobbying the
US government to prohibit the use of open source software by
endeavouring to outlaw so-called "warranty free"
applications.
.PP
I feel it is my duty to inform you that the success of your
operating system with its embedded web browser relies heavily
on open source programs and protocols, most notably TCP/IP.
.PP
Therefore, in the interests of your corporation's fiscal health,
I strongly advise that you withdraw support for any US
legislation that would cripple or render illegal open source
development.
.CLOSING
Sincerely,
Defaults for letters
In letters,
mom
sets:
the date flush right, page right, at the top of page one
the addressee in a block flush left, page left
the addressor in a block flush left, page left
the greeting flush left
the body of the letter justified
in multi-page letters:
a footer indicating there's a next page (of the form
.../#
)
the page number at the top of every page after page one
the closing/signature line flush left, indented halfway across the page
Other important style defaults are listed below, and may be changed
via the
typesetting.html#MACROS_TYPESETTING
typesetting macros
or the document processing
definitions.html#TERMS_CONTROLMACRO
control macros
prior to
docprocessing.html#START
START
.  Assume that any
style parameter not listed below is the same as for
docprocessing.html#TYPESET_DEFAULTS
PRINTSTYLE TYPESET
or
docprocessing.html#TYPEWRITE_DEFAULTS
PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE
.
PARAMETER             PRINTSTYLE TYPESET   PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE
---------             ------------------   --------------------
Paper size            8.5 x 11 inches      8.5 x 11 inches
Left/right margins    1.25 inches          1.25 inches
Header margin         3.5 picas            3.5 picas
(for page numbers)
Header gap            3 picas              3 picas
(for page numbers)
Family                Times Roman          Courier
Font                  roman                roman
Point size            12                   12
Line space            13.5                 12 (i.e. singlespaced)
Paragraph indent      3 ems                3 picas
Spaced paragraphs     yes                  no
Footers*              yes                  yes
Footer margin         3 picas              3 picas
Footer gap            3 picas              3 picas
Page numbers          top, centered        top, centered
*Footers contain a "next page" number of the form .../#
The letter macros
All letter macros must come after
docprocessing.html#START
START
,
except
NO_SUITE
.
#DATE
DATE
#TO
TO
#FROM
FROM
#GREETING
GREETING
#CLOSING
CLOSING
#NO_SUITE
NO_SUITE
-- "next page" number off
Macro:
DATE
Invoke
DATE
on a line by itself, with the date
underneath, like this:
.DATE
October 31, 2002
Macro:
TO
Invoke
TO
on a line by itself, with the name
and address of the addressee underneath, like this:
.TO
JOHN SMITH
10 Roberts Crescent
Bramladesh, Ont.
Macro:
FROM
Invoke
FROM
on a line by itself, with the name
and address of the addressor underneath, like this:
.FROM
JOE BLOW
15 Brunette Road
Ste-Vieille-Andouille, Qu?bec
Macro:
GREETING
Invoke
GREETING
on a line by itself, with the
full salutation you want for the letter, like this:
.GREETING
Dear Mr. Smith,
Macro:
CLOSING
Invoke
CLOSING
on a line by itself after the
body of the letter, with the closing you'd like (e.g. "Yours
truly,"), like this:
.CLOSING
Yours truly,
Macro:
NO_SUITE
If you don't want
mom
to print a "next
page" number at the bottom of multi-page letters, invoke
.NO_SUITE
, on a line by itself, prior to
docprocessing.html#START
START
.
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